History Info

Photo by Fassbender Collection, Historic Black Hills Studio

A TOUCH OF HISTORY

Before the Black Hills Gold Rush of 1876, the area now known as Spearfish was used by Native Americans (primarily bands of Sioux but others also ranged through the area) who would spear fish (suckers, chubs, & dace) in the creek, hence the name of the creek and subsequently the town. Surveyed and staked out in 1876 and officially incorporated in 1888, the first residents of Spearfish gazed up at the ring of pine-clad hills and rocky bluffs that surrounded the community and noted how they looked like a crown. For this reason, they called their small agricultural settlement the “Queen City,” and it’s been thriving ever since. Spearfish’s first business opened in 1877 along with a United States Post Office, and the city soon evolved from a farming community (primarily to supply the notorious gold camp of Deadwood just 15 miles away) into a thriving academic and cultural center. Spearfish grew as a supplier of foodstuffs to the mining camps in the hills. Even today, a significant amount of truck farming or market gardening still occurs in the vicinity. Before South Dakota had even gained statehood, the people of the Black Hills of Dakota Territory demonstrated a high regard for education and began advocating for a university in the Black Hills. Dakota Territorial Normal School was founded in 1883, now known as Black Hills State University. In 1938, Joseph Meier brought the Luenen Passion Play to settle permanently in Spearfish which became the Black Hills Passion Play, drawing thousands of visitors every year during the summer months. In 2008, after 70 years of summer performances, the Black Hills Passion Play was retired by Josef Meier’s daughter Johanna. Also in the 1930s, the Homestake Sawmill, now known as Spearfish Forest Products, was built to supply timbers for the Homestake Mine in Lead. The mine subsequently closed January 2002 and is now home to the Sanford Underground Research Facility. THOEN STONE In 1887, the accepted history of gold mining in the Black Hills was thrown into question by the discovery of what has become known as the Thoen Stone. Discovered by Louis Thoen on the slopes of Lookout Mountain to the east of Spearfish, the stone portrays the last testament of Ezra Kind who, along with six others, entered the Black Hills in 1833 – over forty years before the legendary gold rush. Kind etched on the stone:

Came to these hills in 1833 seven of us all ded but me Ezra

Kind….killed by ind beyond the high hill….got our gold june 1834….got all the gold we could carry…our ponys all got by Indians….I hav lost my gun and nothing to eat…and

Indians hunting me. There is a replica of the stone placed on a hill in Spearfish accessible through a short hike. When you reach the replica of the stone at the top of the hill, you can look across to Lookout Mountain and view a white “X” on the mountain. This is the area where the stone left by Ezra Kind was found. Years of research has been continued into the authenticity of this finding. Many of the men listed on the stone did indeed